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He wasn’t a blue-chip prospect. Nothing was guaranteed. Nothing was handed to him.

Everything he did, he earned.

No matter how tough times might have been, he was always doing one thing — smiling.

Wheeler’s smile and fun-loving character have been with him since his high school days, he said. He’s always cracking jokes with his RailRiders teammates prior to games.

It’s just who he is.

“I’m being myself and always having a good time,” Wheeler said. “It makes me feel better as a person. There’s no reason to be mad. You might not like the person, but we’re part of the team. We’re all one group. We’re all one.

“I’m just coming out and playing the game and doing my job the best way I can and that’s by having fun.”

His journey took a turn for the better July 2, when Wheeler was told that, for the first time in his career, he was headed to the big leagues.

“I was like, ‘Wow, hard work pays off. I finally made it,’ ” Wheeler said. “I wasn’t emotional, I couldn’t cry because I was so numb, maybe because I was happy. But man, what a great feeling.”

The 27-year-old met the rest of his New York Yankee teammates in Minnesota on July 3.

He was immediately put to the test in the first game of the series, starting at third base and batting eighth. His first at-bat was rather uneventful — a pop out in foul territory.

It got better in the fifth inning. A lot better.

With New York in front by a run, Wheeler got a fastball from former Yankees starter Phil Hughes and blasted it over the left-center field wall for his first major league hit and home run.

“What a good feeling that was to run around the bases like that,” he said. “It was awesome.”

Wheeler played in 16 games with the Yankees in July and hit .267 with two home runs and three RBIs.

“It felt like I belonged,” he said. “When you break baseball down, it’s all the same. But guys up there are just smarter. Being around veteran guys and playing with guys like that and some future Hall of Famers, it’s encouraging. I felt comfortable.”

That big-league journey was put on hold Aug. 1 when Wheeler was optioned back to the RailRiders. To some, a demotion could be seen as a disappointment. But not to Wheeler.

He didn’t take his time to get back to Triple-A. Rather, he jumped at the opportunity and was in the RailRiders’ lineup the next night.

“There’s no need to take days off,” Wheeler said. “I want to play every day and when I got that opportunity to come back down here and play, I’m coming (to play). It’s not going to hurt you to come down here and play.”

Since he’s been back with the RailRiders, Wheeler was hitting .255 with two home runs, three doubles, six RBIs and a .747 OPS in 12 games heading into Saturday.

His stint with New York hasn’t changed who he is and his teammates never expected it to.

“He just grinds it out,” second baseman Rob Refsnyder said. “He doesn’t show anybody up and you know, he could. He could big league a lot of guys but he doesn’t. He’s a joy to play with.”

The next chapter of Wheeler’s journey remains to be written. He is currently on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, so a September call-up is likely. But that’s out of Wheeler’s control and he knows that.

For now, he’ll continue to play the game the same way he always has. The rest will take care of itself.

“If I’m not having fun, then I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “Hopefully, I can have fun for the next 10 years. We’ll see how it goes.”

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